


House of Horrors

by toomanyunfinishedfics



Category: Persona 5, 魔女の家 | Majo no Ie | The Witch's House (Video Game)
Genre: Also don't mind the title I couldn't think of anything lol, Animal Death, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Implied Akechi Goro/Sakamoto Ryuji, M/M, Mention of bugs & spiders, This is completely out of my writing comfort zone, Unreliable Narrator, but I got the idea in my head and it wouldn't go away until I wrote it, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 15:23:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16478078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanyunfinishedfics/pseuds/toomanyunfinishedfics
Summary: Akira travels deep into the forest to visit his sick friend Goro, only to step foot into a house that doesn’t have any plans of letting him leave alive.





	House of Horrors

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU of [The Witch's House](http://vgperson.com/games/witchhouse.htm), an RPG Maker horror game which also has a remastered version that just came out on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/885810/The_Witchs_House_MV/)! There’s spoilers for the true ending and the pseudo “third” ending here, so if you have any plans to play the game, I would recommend playing it before reading this fic--TWH is a game best gone into blind so the ending can smack you upside the head and leave you reeling years after first playing it like it did for me lmao
> 
> (Also I apologize if the fic feels rushed; you can kind of see the point where I just gave up and hit the fast-forward button to get to the ending lmao oops;;; Hopefully it’s still somewhat enjoyable regardless rip)
> 
> Happy Halloween!

Deep in the forest lies a house, said to be occupied by a witch who curses all those who step foot inside.

Akira knew that story well, and he also knew that there was no truth behind it--the large house was simply a home to a sick boy his own age named Goro; nothing more, nothing less. He’d been inside enough times to know by now that there was no danger, and certainly no witch.

Or at least, that’s what he thought.

* * *

Akira turned his attention away from the roses blocking the path to the forest’s exit and looked back up at the house, a frown on his face as he took in the decrepit exterior and the almost unnatural fog that seemed to surround the abode.

This was… unexpected.

Since there was no way to leave, the only thing left to do was move forward--and so Akira let out a resigned sigh as he began walking towards the house, only stopping when a voice called out to him.

“Hey, don’t ignore me!”

Briefly startled, Akira turned, glancing around warily before spotting the black cat looking up at him.

“... Sorry. I wasn’t trying to ignore you,” Akira offered weakly, because of _course_ the cat that hung around this house would choose now to start talking to him. “I just wasn’t expecting you to want to talk to me.”

The cat’s tail lazily moved behind him as he looked up at Akira thoughtfully. “So, you’re really going in?”

“I don’t exactly have much of a choice,” Akira replied wryly, glancing pointedly back at the roses blocking his path--if they were normal roses, he could have just forced his way through and dealt with any scratches or punctures from the thorns, but it was like the vines were made of stone--it had been impossible to get them to so much as budge when he touched them. “Something in this house doesn’t want me to leave, apparently.”

“Well, I have nothing better to do, so I’ll come with you,” the cat offered, though he made no move to get off of the stump that he was sitting on.

Figuring that the cat would follow him if he really wanted to come in, Akira began walking towards the door and cautiously stepped foot inside, immediately noting that something wasn’t right.

The doorway was supposed to lead directly into the foyer, yet all that was here was an empty room.

Glancing around, Akira failed to pay attention to what was on the ground as he felt his foot sink into something wet, the squelching sound covering up a quiet _click_.

With a grimace, Akira looked down, paling slightly as he caught sight of a puddle of red liquid on the ground.

_Is that…._

He wasn’t given the chance to finish his thought as the walls suddenly closed in on him from both sides, giving him nowhere to run as they cr--

* * *

“Hey, what’re you spacing out for?” the cat prompted. “Weren’t you heading inside?”

Akira blinked dazedly. “I… yes, I was. Sorry.”

Shaking his head slightly, Akira turned away from the cat and began making his way towards the entrance of the house, stepping inside and tensing slightly as he was met with the sight of an empty room, with nothing of note save for the puddle of ominously red liquid on the floor and the single door on the other end of the room.

Figuring that the liquid had to be on the floor for a reason (one that he wasn’t too keen on finding out), Akira carefully stepped around the puddle and made his way over to the door, feeling relieved as he stepped foot into a much more familiar setting.

He had no idea what that other room was about or where it came from, but he had a feeling he’d figure things out soon enough.

* * *

“I’d be careful if I were you. This house keeps changing; it’s not the same as you remember.”

Akira shot the cat a weary look, as if to say _I’ve figured that out already, thanks,_ before moving on into the dining area.

This house… well, it was like the cat said: it wasn’t the same as Akira remembered at all. It was _dangerous_ , it was literally trying to _kill_ him--and if that wasn’t bad enough, it was forcing him to solve mundane puzzle after mundane puzzle just to proceed deeper into the house, when all he wanted to do at this point was leave and never come back.

(These puzzles were almost an insult, really--they were so simple yet so tedious, as if meant to keep Akira around for as long as possible rather than to actually provide him with some semblance of a challenge.)

Akira grimaced in disgust as he stepped foot into the kitchen, the noise of roaches skittering across the floor and walls just barely being overpowered by the sound of a knife hitting a cutting board, which in turn was completely overpowered by the pungent smell that filled the room.

Still, he knew there had to be something to this room, just as there had been something to all the other rooms that he’d searched through before this--and so he braced himself and stepped inside, doing his best to avoid stepping on any bugs and grimacing in disgust as he heard the crunch of one under his foot anyway.

“ _Ah, I’m busy, so busy…._ ”

Akira frowned as he heard the voice, seeing only a floating knife repeatedly hitting an empty cutting board as if chopping food.

Right, of course there would be some sort of ghost chef here. It wasn’t like anything in this house made sense anymore, after all.

“ _Ah, hello!_ ” the ghost called out to Akira as they paused in their chopping, catching Akira off-guard and causing him to flinch in surprise. “ _Would you mind lending a hand?_ ”

Akira eyed the knife warily--he had no idea how this ghost would react if he said no, but logic dictated that refusing to adhere to the request of someone that was armed typically wasn’t a good idea, especially not when he could easily tell how sharp the blade was even in the dim lighting of the room.

“I… suppose I could help,” Akira conceded warily. “What do you need me t--!!”

An invisible force grabbed his wrist in an iron grip and slammed it down on the cutting board, the pieces clicking in his mind just a second too late as he struggled to free himself from the inhumanly strong grip.

“ _Thank you. A hand is_

**_exactly_ **

**_what_ **

**_I_ **

**_needed._ ** ”

The knife swung down, the sharp blade cutting through flesh and bone as Akira let out an agonized scr--

* * *

“You doing okay?”

Akira blinked dazedly as he stared down at the black cat by his feet, absentmindedly rubbing his wrist. “... Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Don’t go spacing out yet, you still have a lot more of this house left to explore,” the cat reminded him.

Akira frowned--he didn’t need a talking cat to remind him that there was still so much more to go before he could finally escape.

“I know.”

* * *

Akira made his way up to the second floor--the chef in the kitchen had given him the last piece of the puzzle that he’d needed to open the door to the stairwell in exchange for the arms of an old stuffed animal that he’d happened to find, oddly enough, though Akira wasn’t complaining if it meant getting one step closer to escaping--and into the first room that he found, which happened to be a library.

Libraries meant information. Right now, there were a lot of gaps that needed filling, and hopefully the library would be the place that had the answers he was looking for.

“ _Keys do not open doors in the witch’s house. Something else must serve as a key._ ”

“ _The form of the house changes based upon the witch’s magic._ ”

Akira frowned as he briefly skimmed through whatever books that he could actually take out, the others serving merely as decoration affixed to the shelves.

_The witch’s magic… then I guess that means_ **_he’s_ ** _the one doing this._

Akira almost laughed at the thought--who would have ever guessed that something like this would have happened?

Had it not been for his close encounters with death and all the strange happenings around him… well, as logical as he may have considered himself to be, he wasn’t stubborn enough to deny what he was seeing for himself, either.

Shaking his head slightly, Akira moved on to the next bookshelf, finding a worn journal wedged in between some of the decorative books and frowning as he took it out and opened it up.

“ _I was born a sickly child. Perhaps that’s why my father left, and why my mother never loved me._ ”

“ _It was my fault. She didn’t love me, and I XXXXXd her. I’ve been in this house ever since._ ”

“ _A demon came along and ate my mother. The demon brought me to this forest, gifting me this house in exchange for the meal, and offered to make a deal with me: he would teach me a spell to cure my illness, in exchange for bringing him more humans to eat._ ”

“ _I kept drawing people into this house: those who were curious about the rumors, those who supposedly wished to be my “friend”... I’ve XXXXXd them all, yet it wasn’t enough. It was never enough._ ”

“ _I’ve always hated this body. I hated being tied to this house by this illness. It kept me from being normal. It drove people away. Who could possibly love someone like me?_ ”

“ **_Then a boy came over one day, with beautiful black hair and kind, gray eyes._ ** ”

“ _I chose not to XXXX him right away. After all, he saved me from my sickness. So I made him my “friend.”_ ”

Akira hesitated, running his fingers along the yellowed pages before carefully putting the book back onto the shelf and exiting the room.

He walked down the hall, glancing at the cat that was sitting next to a decorative suit of armor and frowning as he saw the clear amusement in his gaze.

Shaking his head slightly, he ignored the cat and moved on into the next room, taking a minute to adjust his vision to the dimly lit area as he cautiously made his way inside.

Apparently it was some sort of storage room, filled with boxes and barrels that were--as Akira discovered through warily searching them--all empty save for a thick coil of rope at the bottom of one of the barrels, under a spider web that Akira reluctantly reached through to pull it out.

He was about to leave the room when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

A butterfly, trapped on a giant spider web that covered the back wall, its tiny wings moving uselessly in an attempt to free itself.

“You’re trapped just like me, huh,” Akira murmured, approaching the butterfly and carefully freeing it from the web. “A beautiful creature like you doesn’t deserve such a cruel fate… there you go.”

He cracked a small, brief smile as the butterfly flew away through a small crack in the wall, his expression quickly falling into a curious frown as the faint sound of something clicking met his ears.

_Was that a puzzle? It seemed too simple._

Akira made his way back towards the door, only realizing his mistake when he went to turn the handle and found it to be locked.

_That wasn’t the sound of something unlocking… it was--!!_

A giant spider descended from the ceiling behind him, barely giving him the chance to turn around before its massive jaw closed around his head and--

* * *

“If you keep spacing out like that, you’ll never get anything done, you know.”

Akira shot the cat a disgruntled look as he walked past him into the next room, a feeling of deja-vu leading him to a particular barrel with a coil of rope at the bottom.

_Guess this must be important._

Shrugging to himself, he reached past the broken spider web lining the inside of the barrel and picked up the rope, barely sparing a glance at the butterfly trapped on the wall as he exited the room once more.

No point in making any unnecessary moves. He had no idea what kind of spider could make a web that big, and he didn’t exactly want to find out, either.

He searched the final room on the floor, finding nothing of note save for glass cases filled with model insects and a small bookshelf all the way in the back with one empty slot, before heading back into the library to see if he could take one of the books from there to complete the bookshelf.

“ _Oh, excuse me._ ”

Akira came to a halt at the voice, turning and only finding the source of the voice as he noticed some stacks of books in the corner of the room moving.

“ _May I please have that rope that you’re holding?_ ”

Having almost forgotten about the rope entirely, Akira saw no reason not to hand it over, feeling only slightly worried about his sanity as he barely even batted an eye at the rope beginning to float away from him.

“ _Thank you very much, kind sir._ ” A book began to float out of one of the piles and into Akira’s hands. “ _Here, take this._ ”

Akira glanced down at the book, nearly letting out a humorless laugh as he read the title.

“ _The Book of Death_ … of course.”

Shaking his head slightly, he thanked the ghost before turning and walking away, paying no mind to the blood under his feet nor to the choking sounds coming from one of the stacks of books, the rope hanging from thin air above it.

The black cat was apparently still lounging next to the suit of armor without a care in the world, and Akira let him be, turning his attention away from the cat as he made his way back into the room with the glass cases, and walking all the way to the back and approaching the bookshelf.

It was a tight squeeze to try and get the book to go in, and just when he thought he’d gotten it, the book popped right back out and hit the ground on its spine, the pages opening before Akira’s eyes.

As if in a trance, Akira slowly bent down to pick up the book, taking a seat instead of rising back to his feet and setting the book down on his lap to flip through the pages. He absentmindedly rubbed his eyes as he turned the page, his eyes growing increasingly itchy with each page that he read until rubbing wasn’t enough-- the itch was maddening, and his fingers scratched over his eyelids to try and relieve the feeling, except even that _wasn’t enough_ \-- the itch was deep, far beyond where he could reach with his eyes in the way as he dug his fingers in, blood streaming down his face and onto the book as he forced his fingers in deeper and deeper to claw at the **_incessant itching_** \--

* * *

Akira was annoyed to find himself zoning out once more, and he pointedly ignored the cat’s snickering as he moved on to the next room, wanting to put this book into the bookshelf so he could move on already.

He normally considered himself a patient person, but at this point all he wanted was to be _done_ with all of this craziness so he could leave this house.

After all, there was someone waiting for Akira at home.

The thought put a small smile onto his face.

* * *

Puzzle after puzzle, Akira progressed through the witch’s house, avoiding death along the way: traps shooting daggers at him, giant snakes trying to eat him, paintings coming to life and chasing after him….

Each time he caught himself zoning out in front of the black cat--who seemed to somehow slip ahead of him in each area without his noticing--Akira felt his irritation growing.

(He already had an idea of what was happening, but he didn’t want to dwell on it.)

(The only thing that mattered in the end was him making it out of this house alive and in one piece, no matter how long it took.)

Despite wanting to leave, it ironically took Akira making his way all the way to the rooftop garden of the house before he could finally consider himself somewhat close to escaping the house.

Passing through the hallway filled with a poisonous gas that stung his eyes and burned his lungs, Akira just barely managed to make it through to the room with the last piece of the puzzle, and his ticket out of this crazy house: a small bottle, buried deep within one of the medicine cabinets scattered around the room, filled with a liquid that would kill the witch’s roses and clear the path to the forest’s edge.

Deciding to leave the room before anything else could try and kill him, Akira quickly made his way over to the door and opened it, only to find himself in a dark, empty space.

_The house is changing again,_ he thought idly, hardly even surprised by this point--of course _he_ would be trying to stop him now, when he’s so close to escaping the house once and for all.

Unable to do anything other than follow the path set out before him, Akira exited the only door in the empty space surrounding him, climbing the stairs that appeared and walking through the hallway until he arrived at a familiar bedroom door, with a familiar, unconscious cat laying before it, his body limp and unmoving.

“I guess your time was up,” Akira murmured, bending down to gently pet the cat and carefully move him aside. “As annoying as you may have been at times, I appreciate all that you did to help me. Thank you, Morgana.”

Straightening up, Akira braced himself before opening the door and stepping foot into the bedroom.

The most alarming thing--beyond the bloodstains running from the bed across the floor, beyond the bloodied sheets and overturned chair--was the fact that the bedroom was empty.

It wasn’t supposed to be empty, he wasn’t even supposed to be able to leave the bed--

Akira shook his head slightly, stepping further into the room and avoiding the blood on the floor as he roamed the room, searching for any signs of its inhabitant. He approached the desk last, finding that there was another journal open with a single entry.

“ _My sickness was going to kill me._

_So…._

_I took his body from him._

_I lived on in his body._

_That’s fine, right?_

_Because we’re “friends.”_

_He gave me his body…_

_… because we’re “friends.”_

_So… won’t you stay a little longer? I’d hate to see you go so soon._

_Right?_ **_Akira?_ ** ”

A shattering sound pulled Akira’s attention away from the journal, and he looked up in time to see a person--if he could even be called that anymore--dragging himself across the floor.

Light brown hair matted against his head with dark splotches of blood, empty eye sockets with blood streaming down his face, a puddle of blood smearing the floor behind him as he used his arms to pull his legless body towards Akira, who backed up unconsciously in response….

“... _ghv_ … _uhg_ … _ghk_ ….”

The garbled voice brought forth more blood from the boy’s mouth, and Akira frowned in distaste, glancing at the door and warily edging his way towards it.

And then, all hell broke loose.

A person with no legs shouldn’t be able to move so quickly, yet even as Akira ran as fast as his body would allow, the mutilated person was right behind him--down the stairs, down the hall, stopping only to grab his knife from one of the cabinets on the first floor and nearly paying for the pitstop with his life--but Akira knew that if he could just make it outside the house….

He burst through the front door and kept running without looking back, only stopping to catch his breath once he was sure that nothing was following him.

Finally… _finally_ , he was free from that deathtrap of a house, and hell would freeze over before he ever stepped foot inside it again.

Once he could walk without his legs feeling like they would collapse out from underneath him, Akira moved towards the giant patch of roses and thorns blocking his path and pulled out the medicine, pouring it onto the abnormal plant and watching with the slightest hint of a frown as the flowers shriveled up and died, the vines falling away and clearing the way back towards the forest’s exit.

_What a shame. Those roses were always so beautiful._

Shaking his head slightly, Akira began walking towards the forest’s edge, only coming to a stop when he heard the sound of something dragging itself behind him.

“ _Ghv… ghk…._ ”

Akira turned around to face Goro’s bloodied, mangled body, his horrific state even more pronounced in the outside light, even as clouds began to cover the sun and a light drizzle began falling from the sky.

Goro kept pulling himself closer, and closer, and _closer_ , until--

“I never realized just how stubborn you were.”

Akira stabbed the knife into one of Goro’s empty eye sockets, watching coldly as he flailed and stumbled backwards in pain.

“How long do you plan on chasing me for? You know that body won’t last much longer.”

Goro weakly pushed himself back up, looking up at Akira through sightless eyes.

“ _... ghv_ … _uhg_ … _ghk…._ ”

“Hm?” Akira turned away from him, a small smile playing at his lips. “‘Give it back?’ Now why would I do that? After all, this body hurts much less.”

He turned back around, striding over to Goro and leaning over to lightly grip him by the chin. “You gave it to me in the first place, you know. Isn’t that right, **Akira?** ”

Letting out a rueful sigh, Goro rose to his feet, shaking his head slightly as he took a few steps away from Akira. “You felt so sorry for me… I couldn’t even move from my bed. You were kind enough to offer to help, and I merely took you up on that offer. Was that so wrong?” His smile darkened. “... Oh, but I suppose I _did_ say it would just be for a day… my mistake.”

Goro’s smile fell into a small frown. “I was surprised that you could trap me with my own power… but of course, as you can see, it was to no avail. After all, it’s my house; despite your best efforts, it still guided me through to the end.”

Akira continued looking up at him with a pained expression, still barely clinging to life despite not even having the strength to move, and Goro clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Still not dead, are you? If nothing else, I have to applaud your tenacity. Unless….” Slowly, a cold smile worked its way onto his face as he knelt down before Akira. “Are you that worried about your boyfriend? His name was… Ryuji, was it not?” He laughed softly as he saw Akira tense up. “Of course I know about him. Living outside the town together, in a small cottage; just two young men, trying to support one another as society cast them aside… what it must be like, to share every waking moment with the one person in this world that adores you.” Goro sighed wistfully at the thought. “Those memories of him remained in your body--he’s a kind young man, no matter how the town labels him. He supports the two of you through hunting, doesn’t he? Just as he supported his mother before she passed away; the only adult that ever cared about either of you.”

Goro’s smile widened as he felt the horror practically rolling off of Akira in waves, and he couldn’t help but laugh once more at the desperate, garbled noise that left Akira’s mouth. “There’s no need to worry, Akira. Everything will be just fine.” He cupped Akira’s bloodied cheek and leaned forward even further, his voice a mere whisper. “I’ll give him **_Akira’s share of love_** \--and I’ll take **_Akira’s share of love_** , as well.”

“Akira?”

Goro straightened up and rose to his feet, quickly turning around to find a blond young man approaching.

“Akira!” Ryuji’s relieved smile as he laid eyes on his boyfriend quickly faded into a look of horror as he saw what was behind him.

Goro quickly rushed over to Ryuji’s side with a relieved expression, and Ryuji hastily raised the rifle in his arms, aiming at the monstrous creature that was beginning to drag itself towards them.

“Stay back!”

“ _... Rh… uu… jh…._ ”

Ryuji fired a warning shot, but the creature kept moving towards them, its hand outstretched and a broken, garbled noise leaving its mouth.

“ _... hhh… lgp… mh…._ ”

“I said _stay back!!_ ”

Ryuji tightened his grip on his gun, his boyfriend nervously gripping his arm giving him the push to pull the trigger as he shot the creature twice in the head, watching warily as it crumpled to the ground and only relaxing once he was sure it wouldn’t move anymore.

“... The hell was that thing…?” Ryuji shook his head slightly and turned to face his boyfriend with a weak smile. “Glad I came out here looking for you. Are you okay?”

Goro returned Ryuji’s weak smile with one of his own. “I am now that you’re here,” he replied, prompting a soft blush and a more genuine smile from Ryuji. “Let’s go home, I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah, let’s go before any other crazy shit shows up.”

Ryuji turned around and began heading back towards the forest’s exit, and Goro took a moment to glance back at his old body, a quiet laugh slipping out unbidden.

He turned around as well and followed Ryuji home, a smile on his face the whole way back.

* * *

“ _You were sure to hear out my wish._

_Because you were so kind._

_Because you were so trusting._

_When we traded bodies… Akira, you must have been surprised._

_My body was falling apart. It hurt all over._

_I was used to it, but I suppose you couldn’t take it._

_It must have hurt. You cried in pain._

_So then I gave you medicine._

_A medicine to burn your throat, to silence you._

_After all, who would want to hear the sound of their own screams?_

_Of course, being the trusting fool you were, you drank it as soon as I assured you it would stop the pain._

_Then I escaped from that cursed prison of a room._

_To be able to taste the fresh air, to feel the warm breeze and the sun against my skin as I stepped outside…._

_It was the most wonderful feeling._

_Ah, yes._

_Before you came, Akira, I gouged out my eyes._

_I cut off my legs._

_So that you, in my body, would despair as you died._

_Ahh… Akira._

_My dear “friend.”_

_So kind, so charming, so loved. And with all that, so foolish._

_Thank you, Akira._

_Goodbye._ ”

* * *

“Jeez, he really left a mess this time.”

Morgana jumped out from one of the bushes, eyeing the mutilated body--and the soul trapped within it--with an amused gaze.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.”

The body turned to vapor, and the demon inhaled his final gift from Goro--it had been a fun ride, but there were plenty of other idiot humans out there to leech off of for free meals.

Morgana turned his gaze up to the spirit, considering consuming him too before a better, more entertaining idea came to mind.

“Hey,” he began, his golden eyes glimmering with mischief. “Wanna make a deal?”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so if this fic worked the way I hope it did, now that you've reached the ending, you should be able to re-read the fic in the correct PoV and it should still work (hopefully) without being ooc plus some bits of the narration should have a bit of a different feel to it. Give it a try if you'd like, but regardless thanks for reading all the way through to the end! I've never really written a fic like this before, but hopefully it turned out at least decent;;


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